27. Journeys stalled.

Link to Tilted Spire Timetable
 
“Nice to know I can be right, sometimes.” Jaden nodded, looking around at the heavy machinery.
“Yeah, so let's see if we can make it work!” Nox exclaimed. After her previous close call with the smaller teleporting machine in the tower, she’d grown excited by the potential. And this machine was massive, meant for teleporting large pallets of equipment possibly across the universe! Nox dived under the modular blocks without another word and started tracing the powerlines.
 
Meanwhile, Marius searched the room and was disappointed to find that the teleport room was a dead end. They’d searched the whole eastern dig complex not covered in frigid water and found no way to the dome and to transport to the east.
“You know, I don’t think this machine is going to get us to the underwater tunnels you were hoping for,” Marius said to Fureva-Yung. For her part, she stood silently by as more sparks of recognition made her twitch. It was like an itch she couldn’t reach, somewhere in the centre of her head. Equipment, script, and even smells would set off another wave of half-remembered…something she could not describe or even define to herself.
 
“Careful in there, Nox. We don’t want a repeat of Cerelon,” Jaden called as Nox crawled through the machine, identifying parts.
“That won’t happen to me,” Nox called back, her voice muffled. She pushed thick leads aside as she squeezed through, “No one….”
 
A bright flash of light. After images of the black machine and silence.
 
“Nox?” Marius called. His voice echoed off the domed roof.
Jaden threw down a tool she’d only just pulled out of Bellyache, “Ah, shit!”
 
“...cares…enough…” The end of Nox’s sentence drifted as it bounced off new walls in a cold dark space. She floated weightless in a large oval-shaped room. In front of her, a huge view screen stared back blankly into the room. Two lines of control panels with seats mounted to the floor in front of the screen. Between the rows, flanked on either side, was a large chair. Nox’s breath caught as she realised this must be the command deck of a spaceship, just like the ones Fureva-Yung commanded! The cold thin air caught in her throat, and for the next few minutes, she slowly spun as she tried to catch her breath. Her head bumped against one of the control consoles. Flipping around in the air and wedged her legs under the console floating just about the seat. It felt good.
 
Like much of the room, the console screen was frozen on the last thing the last operator had entered. She thought the script looked like Ferrian, confirmed by a large Ferrian symbol on the door to the room's rear. Nox’s hands shook with the cold as she wrote down what she could of the script on the console. She was sure if Fureva-Yung could remember even a few words, she could decipher the written script they’d found at the Spire and the dig site.
 
Nox knew she was running out of time. Either Jaden would work out what happened and get her back, or she would die of hypothermia or asphyxiation. She put her hope in the former and pushed off the console. Nox sailed across the space towards the big chair in the centre. She scanned the room for anything that she’d be able to take back with her. Something small, loose, floating free of the room's floor or walls. She made it to the centre chair with a bump, dislodging a ring of metal that had, until that moment, been hooked over the chair's armrest. She threaded her arm through the hole, and it spun around her arm like a hoop on a stick. She let momentum carry her down into the chair, looking around the room and thinking of Fureva-Yung.
 
 
 
“Okay, “ Jaden took a breath, wondering at the enormity of the task. She didn’t have the first idea what Nox had done.
“Okay. Assistance?” She looked to Marius and Fureva-Yung, staring back.
“I got nothing,” Marius shrugged.
“I can hit it,” Fureva-Yung suggested loosening her chain.
“O-kay.”
 
Jaden looked down at the control panel she’d been studying before the flash. It now seemed to be working, though she was sure the displays had been lifeless and empty before the flash. If she was reading it properly, two sets of coordinates were displayed. So, it seemed Nox may have jiggled a loose power cable, teleporting herself to the last coordinates entered into the machine. But which of the two did she go? Logically it would make sense that the first coordinate be the starting position. Making the second the destination? If that was true, was it just a case of flipping the coordinates positions around to bring her back? There was only one way to find out.
 
Taking careful note of both numbers, she entered each into the opposite readout and pressed the big red button that engineeringly screamed, go. There was another flash, and Nox appeared in the centre of the dome, her arms wrapped around her slight body, blue from cold.
 
“You gave us a scare,” Marius was first to speak, helping the girl off the ground and noting how cold she was.
“I was in a spaceship!” Nox enthused, rushing through her words until they blurred together, “Floating around in space! It was just like Fureva-Yung said, with a big screen and consoles all around and a….”
“Big chair in the middle….” Fureva-Yung interrupted. Nox nodded with a huge grin plastered on her face.
“Nothing was working, and it was cold and dark, and it was hard to breathe, but….” She pulled the large ring off her arm and handed it to Fureva-Yung, “I did find this. Look, I think it fits you better.”
 
Looking at the metal ring, Fureva-Yung had a feeling of ownership and rightness, though she could not remember a time having owned anything like it. Without knowing why she slipped the ring over her right hand and onto her wrist. When it made contact with the tattoo, a thin blue line lit up all around the ring, the same colour as the dots on her tattoo.
 
“I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” Nox danced around Fureva-Yung as the large woman stared at the bracelet in awe.
“What is it? Why is it glowing? Have you scanned that thing to see if it's safe?” Marius now spoke up, concerned about this new unknown Nox had found.
“It was on the centre chair. It was a Ferrian ship. I saw the logo,” Nox replied, sounding defensive. Still, she scanned the bracelet as Marius reached out and tapped its shiny surface.
 
A voice like Fureva-Yung’s own spoke a language no one could understand. The voice sounded sure and confident, giving a report or making a note for further consideration. The message lasted a few minutes before stopping. Tapping the bracelet again only started the message off once more.
“Magic arm!” Fureva-Yung looked in amazement at her right arm.
“You’re…an alien!” Marius blurted out before realising what he’d said, “I mean, you really are from somewhere else.”
 
Quickly Marius and Fureva-Yung wanted to be teleported up to the spacecraft too. Fureva-Yung insisted the thin air would not affect her, and Marius agreed that he, too, could withstand the less-than-hospitable environment. Jaden, by this time, was getting a handle on some of the read-outs available to her and slowly shook her head.
“Whatever Nox did to send a jolt of energy through the system, that supply is almost used up. I could get you both up there, but coming back?” She shook her head, “I probably have enough power to get us all to the surface if we can’t work out another way to get back up the lift.”
 
“There’s nowhere else to look, “Marius admitted, “It’s either underwater or back to the surface.”
 
He and Jaden discussed the feasibility of travelling the underwater space. Without even a suggestion of an air-pocketed space, the trip may be cold, wet and one-way. Then they discussed using the teleporter to move the elevator cab or using the arms of the gantry to lift the cab out of the water.
 
“We already have the cab secured,” Nox reminded them, “Fureva-Yung tied it off.”
“And if we could lift it out of the water,” Marius added, “You could do your moulding trick to shape the wall and keep the cab from falling back down. It will allow Jaden to fix it if she needs to.”
 
Leaving the powerful technology of the past behind for now, the group headed back to the elevator shaft. It was still where they’d left it, tied to an eyelet Nox had formed sticking out of the wall. Fureva-Yung got to work re-rigging the cab with her chain. These she attached to new eyelets up the elevator shaft. The new eyelets were flush with the shaft, so the cab to travel past the holes without jamming.
“I don’t know about this lift, “Marius said, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes, “I think it’s rigged.”
 
Once Fureva-Yung was satisfied with her work, everyone but Nox grabbed hold of the rope. What little strength Nox could offer was offset by her getting in the way of the others. She took a position out of the way, where she could see the lift and shaft, and the others began pulling. The life cab was heavy with water now, and even with the benefit of Fureva-Yung’s pulley, the work was hard and slow. As the cab drained of water, the lifting became easier and soon, lying down, Nox could see under the cab and across the shaft. She pulled out wedges of rock from each side of the shaft. The others lowered the cab, settling firmly above the water line.
 
Jaden then got to work seeing what systems needed repair after half a day dunked in ice water. Fortunately, not much was damaged, and she soon had to ready for the trip back to the surface. Before they did, she set the software to recognise the hallway they were in at the moment as the last so the cab would not crash into Nox’s wedged on future trips.
 
Before they all left, Fureva-Yung and Jaden had one more small job. They returned to the first room full of boxes, and Fureva_Yung lifted the component out of its box.
“Jaden, “ Fureva-Yung said as they walked back to the lift, “When you restrained me and painted me pink. I think you were trying to make me look like a human. Pink, hairless and weak.”
“Hmm, hadn’t really thought that hard about it. I suppose I wanted you to belong.”
“Humph, I do not need to look pathetic to fit in. I don’t need to fit in. Things fit to me.”
“ It wasn’t meant to make you look weak. It does make you look more approachable. And I apologise for the restraint, it was too good an opportunity.”
 
The ride up and trip of the stairs to the surface was quick and uneventful. Dritmen and other diggers were surprised and pleased to see the group return in one piece. After half a day lost to them below they were glad to have them back safe and sound.
 
“There are things worth exploring down there, but nothing we can use just yet,” Marius explained to the Dritmen.
“If we’re travelling overland, can we still use the Hoverhorse?” Nox asked Jaden, unsure of the craft’s condition after several weeks at the tower.
“Of course,” Jaden replied, “There’s nothing wrong with that bucket of bolts I can’t fix.”
 
On the walk back, Fureva-Yung played with her bracelet, making the recording play over and over.
“Fureva-Yung, I’d like to spend some time writing down that record,” Nox said after the third hearing of the gibberish in Fureva-Yung’s familiar tones, “Would that be okay?”
Fureva-Yung nodded, “Does it matter when?”
“No-o-o,” Nox replied thoughtfully, “I don’t think anyone cares what it says except you and me.” Marius, walking a short distance away, protested.
“Good, I have an idea.”
 
As soon as they were back at the Spire community, Fureva-Yung climbed up to the open door, Nox at her heels. Passing the robot repair station, she went straight to the box storage area where the body of the small large-eyed creature still lay.
“I think it was one of the little ones we saw running away from the titan,” She said, recently collecting the remains and placing them in a small box, ready for burial.
Nox thought and eventually stirred up the memory of a group of humanoids living in the natural caves below the Endoval Towers.
“The Unseen? Yes, they looked very much like this one. But what is the Unseen doing here in the Spire?”
Neither of them had an answer to that one, so they started moving the boxes out of the room and down the Spire. Marius joined them, stalking around, looking for shinies. He found one tucked behind a stack of boxes ready to move. He reached through the stacks, his fingertips brushing the item's surface, setting it off. The bang that followed made kindling out of the boxes and singed Marius’ forearm hairs and one eyebrow.
 
“What did you do now?” Temila asked, later pulling out her ever-ready salve.
“You know me, poking into corners.”
She sighed and carefully applied the salve to the worst f the burns, “Be more careful, love.”
“That’s no fun.”
 
Meanwhile, Fureva-Yung and Nox finished setting up a lab. That evening, as the light, disappeared from the sky and late into the night, they sat and listened to the recording. Each time, Nox would pull out more and more phrases to try on Fureva-Yung and see if she got any sense of their meaning. Each time Fureva-Yung shook her head in disappointment.
 
The next morning the group gathered around the elevator on the ground floor. Using the same techniques they had used the day before, they attached ropes to the capsule and pulled it up sideways, away from the wall. As they did, Nox straightened the wall smoothing out the shaft and realigning the capsule. While she worked inside the capsule, Jaden got to work outside, determining the damage to the control systems. Using some of her dearly scrounged parts, the capsule soon hovered on a magnetic cushion.
 
Almost as soon as Jaden had sat back on her heels to look over her handiwork, the doors began closing. For a moment, Jaden and Nox’s eyes locked as Nox stepped back into the capsule.
“It’s Nexion. We need to face him sometime,” Nox said as the door closed. From Fureva-Yung’s belt she pulled the crowbar Jaden had made and thrust it through just as the doors slammed shut. The capsule started moving. The crowbar rose up the crack until the hooked end caught in the roof of the capsule. Moaning metal sheeting arrested the movement of the capsule long enough for Nox to beak into the power lines and create a telepathic link. Finding the instructions that controlled the lift she made them all keep the capsule still before seeking out the intelligence called Nexion.
Nexion, this is no way to communicate. I respect you are a free machine, but can’t we talk as two intelligent minds?
“Tell that machine I will throw magnets at its storage devices!” Fureva-Yung fumed above.
Surrender Meatsacks! Soon you will be in my clutches! Nexion replied, sounding even more megalomaniac than before.
What would you do with meatsacks if they did surrender to you?
You will know my rule. You will worship me like the others.
“I will put saltwater on its circuit board!” Fureva-Yung boomed.
Others? This was news, What others?
My creatures, come and see!
 
Marius lay across the top of the capsule and stretched a hand down to Nox just as she looked up, remembering the lone body they’d only just buried the day before.
“He’s talking about the Unseen, Marius. Nexion is the Allseer.”
“What?” Turning around, he swung his legs down into the capsule and jumped down into the capsule with Nox. There he looked through the gap in the door. His cat’s eyes could see well in the darkness, but there was little to see beyond a few more levels of doors.
“I will put metal shavings in your interfaces!” Fureva-Yung creatively threatened.
 
“I think we’ve had enough of this Nexion,” Marius looked up through the hole in the capsule, “Jaden can you isolate the elevator controls so Nexion can’t take control? If we’re going to meet this Allseer, then we’re going to do it on our terms.”